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The new Monopoly piece will be ...

Meow!

Cat Wins ‘Monopoly’ Of Votes As New Board Game Piece; Iron Gets Flattened
A NEW PARADIGM

Cat Wins ‘Monopoly’ Of Votes As New Board Game Piece; Iron Gets Flattened

By Elizabeth C.

IN AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT SURPRISES NO ONE WHO PLAYS ON THE INTERNET, THE CAT WINS Hasbro’s online voting to determine Monopoly’s new game piece. (NPR slyly points out that neither Goyte nor bacon cupcakes were options.)

Out is the silly old iron — who uses that appliance anymore? In is the Internet fans’ favorite, the feline.

“It’s probably not surprising that the cat won,” Wall Street Journal‘s George Stahl said this morning on the Markets Hub, “given how popular cat videos are on YouTube.”

The maker of the iconic board game last month asked players to vote on which of the game’s eight tokens should be retired — as well as to select a new token from among a cat, a toy robot, guitar, helicopter and diamond ring.

Thirty-one percent of voters in 185 countries choose a cat to replace the iron, which proved to be less popular than the race car, top hat, wheelbarrow, battleship, shoe, thimble and Scottie dog. The appliance will be retired in new versions of the game to be released later this year.

In an nterview with NPR, the resigned iron mumbled that “people just don’t appreciate a starched shirt collar anymore.” But it was optimistic about its immediate future: a pilot on Fox. “It’s called Flat Broke, and Ryan Murphy is producing it. …I play an iron.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Hasbro hopes the contest spurs renewed interest in the classic board game. “Its mainstay products, like Monopoly, are suffering from all the products out there competing for kids’ (and adults) attention,” the paper reported.